Origins
of Uses and Gratification Theory Lazarsfeld and Stanton (1944)
pioneered the development of uses and gratification theory (UGT) during
World War II and initially focused on radio serial programs (Infante, Rancer,
& Womack, 1997). The theory has three specific objectives.
First, UGT attempts to explain how specific viewers use mass media to meet
individual needs. Second, researchers endeavor to discover a viewer's
underlying motives for using the media. Finally, theorists want to
identify the positive and negative consequences of an individual's mass
media utilization.
Elihu Katz (1959)
was the first researcher to employ the UGT approach by initially questioning
what individuals do with mass media (Severin & Tankard, 1997).
Katz named a Bernard Berelson (1959) study that examined a two-week newspaper
strike, but from the individual reader's perspective. Katz found
that while some readers felt compelled to do so for social or informative
reasons, many individual readers used newspapers for diversion, relaxation,
and entertainment. Katz also noted that Riley and Riley's (1951)
study showed that children use media stories as premises for group play.
Katz's work demonstrates that different individuals can "use" the media
in contrasting ways.
Although UGT enjoys
wide popularity among mass communication professionals, critics do not
universally accept it (Infante, Rancer, & Womack, 1997). Critics
maintain the theory does not adequately define the essential terms of "audience
motives," "uses," and "gratification." The lack of global definitions
delayed theoretical development. Additionally, critics charge that
utilizing self-report surveys, the research method of many UGT studies,
results in reliability and validity problems because respondents cannot
accurately report feelings and behaviors. Finally, detractors charge
that UGT focuses on the individual, while ignoring the larger social context.
Despite criticisms of UGT, Lazarfield and Stanton's work has led to many
follow-on studies.
Habitual Viewing Adams (2000) studied
12 focus groups, consisting of 93 participants of various backgrounds and
demographics, between late 1996 and early 1997. About 80% of the
viewers in the focus groups stated that television viewing was, in part,
habitual. Participants disclosed no overt plan to view programs around
the favorites, nor do participants modify other activities to watch favorite
shows. A majority admitted subscribing to a viewing periodical such
as "TV Guide" and claimed to regularly read parts of it. Several
admitted to viewing a program featured in the programming guide, but claimed
the magazines have no significant impact on television viewing behavior.
Follow-up questions
suggest that participants are more active than a cursory look of the data
may indicate (Adams, 2000). Adams states, "When participants said
they viewed out of habit, it turned out that the majority meant they already
had a strong mental image of the schedule and didn't need to look things
up" (p. 85). Viewers know what programs are on television at particular
times, and viewers tend to tune in with a particular program in mind.
These ingrained mental images may explain why new programs have difficulty
succeeding, because television viewers have not built any mental images
for the new shows.
Needs and Values McCarty and Shrum
(1993) studied how the role of personal values influences an individual's
distinct television viewing behavior. Values are the beliefs a person
has about conduct and the end-of-life state that guide attitudes, actions,
and judgements. Previous advertising research demonstrated how values
influence specific purchases, leisure choices, and recycling behavior.
This research persuaded scholars to give credence to the idea that values
provide advertisers with information above demographic information alone.
Utilizing a stratified
random sample of 532 adults in a heavily populated state, researchers attempted
to discover how the values-behavior relationship effected television viewing
(McCarty & Shrum, 1993). The study also attempted to see if the
values-demographic relationship was significant, enough to discount demographics
as the reason for any change in viewing behavior. The study indicates
that the personal values of the target market may aid persuasive communication.
Researchers caution that examining only values may be misleading.
Researchers also warn that demographics can distort the true relationship
between values and behavior.
Social Identity While the bulk of
UGT research focuses on the individual alone, some research blends mass
media and social psychology approaches to examine the extent gratification
is associated with social identity (Harwood, 1999). Researchers speculated
that in spite of prior individual and interpersonal views, media use might
also lead to social identities. Harwood asserts that people may actively
use mass media to enhance individual perceptions of a particular social
group, or to make the affiliation a more positive one. Blumler (1995)
demonstrates that societal groups attach different significance to different
gratifications, but also that the personal identity framework overshadows
an individual's social identity.
Social identity, while
part of the self-concept, is distinct from the personal identify (Harwood,
1999). Harwood attempted to measure the reliability of social gratification
as a measure of social identity, as well as links between social gratification
and viewing choices. With a sample of 235 undergraduate communication
students from a large American university, researchers attempted to determine
preferences for actual television programs and for experimentally manipulated,
artificial television programs.
Noting a mean age
of less than 20 years, researchers placed the experimental group in a "young"
social classification (Harwood, 1999). Results show that when respondents
prefer younger television programs, this results in increased age identification.
The simple act of making television-viewing choices may enhance a sense
of belonging to a particular group. Researchers admit actual viewing
behavior may be a better predictor than planned viewing and may result
in effects that are more substantial.
Gratification and Loneliness Loneliness, a motive
linked to UGT, is always a negative and unpleasant psychological state
in which an individual feels a discrepancy between desired and actual interaction,
support, and intimacy (Canary & Spitzberg, 2000). Paradoxically,
lonely individuals who need social interaction are less likely to seek
relationships to solve the loneliness problem, because doing so would exacerbate
feelings of threat and anxiety. These individuals still have virtually
the same information and entertainment needs of non-lonely counterparts.
Since lonely individuals view relational interaction as an unsatisfactory
coping strategy, research shows that some of the lonely turn to the media
to gratify the needs left vacant by the lack of social interaction.
Some research provides
empirical evidence that certain media are considered more useful than others
in satisfying an individual's parasocial needs (Canary & Spitzberg,
1993). Media choices, however, differ in parasocial constructs.
Rubin, Pearce, and Powell (1985) found that parasocial involvement takes
many forms in the media: guidance seeking, seeing personalities as friends,
imagination and fantasy, and desiring to meet media people. The studies
that have researched the extent to which loneliness influences media interaction
have yielded mixed results.
Canary and Spitzberg
(1993) found chronically lonely people are likely to attribute loneliness
to internal and enduring factors. For both chronically and situationally
lonely individuals, research shows that escape gratification is more applicable
in relieving loneliness. Lonely groups obtain more significant escape
from the media than do non-lonely groups. Lonely individuals expect
more information-based gratification from the media than the non-lonely,
but lonely individuals acquire less surveillance gratification from the
media.
Needs in a Multi-channel Environment When Bruce Springsteen
lamented "57 channels and nothing on," the singer crooned how broadband
technologies like direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) and multichannel
multipoint distribution systems (MMDS) have dramatically increased the
channels viewers can watch (Youn, 1994). Industry analysts predict
viewers will soon have 500 channel options, and researchers have tried
to determine how viewers make selections from the plethora of choices.
Research shows television viewing is not a planned, selective, attentive,
or purposeful activity. Additionally, viewing is significantly associated
with passivity in relation to audience motivation. The researcher
looked at program type preference (i.e. news, sports, drama, comedy, etc.)
to help predict which programs viewers will watch.
Researchers have also
examined the uses and gratification of viewing television reruns to determine
why viewers choose to watch something already seen (Furno-Lamude &
Anderson, 1992). Reruns only aired during the 13 summer weeks in
the 1950s. Now, with the addition of cable and independent channels,
reruns make up more than 50% of viewing options. Cable channels like
"Nick at Night" and "TV Land" are made up completely of reruns, and reruns
in many cases have better ratings than first-run programming. Results
show that more viewer motivation is required for rerun viewing with nostalgia
and pure enjoyment associated as the reasons. Viewers just wishing
to pass time generally show a preference for first-run programs.
News Needs The U.S. government
requires American television stations to regularly determine the needs
of the serviced community (Wulfemeyer, 1983). A major study in New
York, published in 1978, found that three-quarters of survey respondents
regularly watch television newscasts. Viewers tune in for various
reasons, including to obtain information and to be entertained. Researchers
found news stories of both entertainment items and unexpected events ranked
equally high among survey respondents. A respondent's gender and
age were insignificant in determining news content preferences.
Lin (1992) studied
why audiences choose particular newscasts over others. In regards
to news anchor selection, the researcher found that viewers do not prefer
one gender to another or whether one or more anchors are used. In
terms of newscaster preference, the study shows audiences prefer anchors
with the attributes of knowledge, experience, professionalism, and pleasing
appearance. Additionally, when comparing anchors from different stations,
viewers did not display a distinct preference; this is possibly because
anchors in the same market may employ similar styles.
Kepplinger and Daschmann
(1997) examined how viewers process television news by comparing objective
news content to the subjective meaning of news stories. Researchers
studied four 15 to 30 minute newscasts on three German networks on May
11, 1993. German newscasts are commercial free and play an important
information dissemination role in German society, but vary significantly
in content and form when compared to the U.S. networks. Researchers
utilized content analysis to examine news story content, and employed a
viewer interview approach to determine the news story's subjective meaning.
The researchers asked
viewers to list the most important story from a particular newscast (Kepplinger
& Daschmann, 1997). Results confirmed the idea that viewers consider
stories placed near the beginning of a newscast as being more important.
Additionally, viewers tended to have the greatest recall of negatively
portrayed events that ran near the start of the program. Next, researchers
asked the viewers' opinion of what they thought was the main point of the
story listed as most important in the newscast. Results show that
the majority of respondents mentioned items that were unverifiable.
Recall was also inaccurate
in that nearly all respondents added information about people, places,
causes, or developments. While the added information makes sense to the
individual viewers, researchers conclude the supplementary information
added fits a story line or otherwise established patterns (Kepplinger &
Daschmann, 1997). The supplemental information, often in a broader
context than presented in the newscast, may come from other news sources,
among them other television news programs and newspapers.
Theoretical Precepts The UGT approach assumes
that media consumers selectively fashion what they believe from the mass
media encounter (Gunter, 2000). The approach also assumes that viewers
control which media are utilized. Weaver, Wilhoit, and Reide (1979) found
three common reasons for general media use: to know what is going on, to
be entertained, and to pass the time. The authors note that demographic
distinctions explain some of the general differences in motivation between
individuals.
Television executives
held onto beliefs of a viewer's network loyalty, even while the Big Three
broadcasting networks simultaneously experienced primetime rating declines
(Abelman, Atkin, & Rand, 1997). To compete with the haphazard
second-guessing by television programmers and other network executives,
academic researchers further modified the uses and gratification
theory to monitor and explain viewing habits. The theory also attempts
to predict a viewer's choice, pattern of viewing, and interpretation of
content. There are three principles of the theory that attempt to
explain and predict an individual's media use: goals direct a viewer's
behavior; viewers actively utilize the media; and viewers select media
to gratify their needs.
The theory suggests
that viewers are aware of the individual media needs each person possesses
(Abelman, Atkin, & Rand, 1997). Additionally, researchers have
identified two basic needs the viewers use the media to fill. First,
media fills ritualized needs in the habitual utilization of media for diversionary
reasons. Secondly, media fills instrumental needs in goal-oriented
behavior to satisfy information needs.
The Abelman, Atkin,
and Rand (1997) study includes a survey of 30 statements utilizing a 5-point
Likert scale with one corresponding to strongly disagree and five corresponding
to strongly agree. The survey contained 10 uses and gratification
theory areas with three questions under each area. The areas are
as follows: relaxation, social interaction, companionship, habit, pass
time, entertainment, information, arousal, escape, and moral support.
Researchers analyzed the audience's viewing motivations by intercorrelating
the items along with a principal factor analysis with oblique rotation.
Results show that ritualized/habitual viewers and goal-oriented viewers
exist.